Even more astonishing, Harding activities director Gerry Keenan, the dean of St. Paul City Conference administrators, has not heard of Duncan, and Keenan has been with the conference for more than 40 years. His knowledge of the conference spans even longer if you include Keenan’s childhood and high school days.

“Nope, never heard of him,” Keenan confessed.

So, who is George Duncan?

Though his name might not trigger memories or recognition, the feat he left behind has been admired and untouched.

For 100 years.

One century ago today, Duncan scored a St. Paul City Conference-record 53 points — still the conference mark — in St. Paul Humboldt’s 84-6 victory over Cleveland, which would become Johnson High School a year later. He scored a single-game conference record 25 field goals, also still a conference mark, and added three free throws.

Duncan’s 53 points remained a state record for nearly a decade until Starbuck’s Jonas Holte scored 58 on Dec. 19, 1919.

“Wow, that’s really something,” Simmons said of Duncan’s record.

“It stuns me that a record like that still stands,” Taylor said.

“I don’t ever remember hearing that name, but that is an impressive number,” said Loeblein, the queen of St. Paul City scoring with four of the top seven single-game scoring games in the conference.

Count Humboldt senior Bryale Winters in the minority. He does know a thing or two about Duncan.

“He must have been one heck of a player,” said Winters, who averages 21.3 points per game for the Hawks this season. “I heard about him last year when I was at Central. I was on the conference Web site and saw his name and all those points.”

A VINTAGE ERA

Little is known about George Duncan.

According to research by St. Paul City Conference historian John Vosejpka, Duncan was a three-sport athlete at Humboldt, located on St. Paul’s West Side. He was a left end in football, a forward in basketball and a first baseman in baseball. He graduated in 1910, and like most youth of that era, went to work. He was a laborer for two years in St. Paul; his last known job was at Dispatch Printing Company.

Yearbooks at Humboldt date to 1914, and current activities director Dave Mergens concedes that record-keeping was “hit and miss” in the early years of the school that opened in 1888.

Duncan’s whereabouts after that, in Minnesota at least, are a mystery.

His record was set during an era when a jump ball followed every made basket. That rule changed in 1938, when jump balls were used to start each half or in the event of dual possession.

Matt Pederson, a Minnesota basketball historian from Starbuck, Minn., said it is possible Duncan’s record game was played on half of a court. He said research reveals stories of games being played wherever space was available, such as on slanted floors (in a theater), on baskets with 8-foot rims because of low ceilings, and with potbelly stoves on, or very close to, the court for warmth.

Duncan played three games during that 1910 season and scored 72 points. Teams didn’t begin playing more games until 1912, when teams played six games.

“As a player then, you didn’t dream of scoring 53 points in a game,” said Keenan, a 1955 graduate of Wilson, a St. Paul City school that closed in 1962. “I wasn’t much of a scorer. I was in charge of guarding guys. It is still so hard to believe that not only did one guy score that many points, but that the rest of the team scored a bunch more, too.

“To think of some guy in 1910 scoring all those points in that era is really something. You’d need an auditor. You just never saw any high-scoring games.”

In discussing Duncan’s feat, Loeblein, the 1991 Minnesota Miss Basketball winner and a second-team All-Big Ten selection with the Gophers in 1995, was reminded of Minneapolis Lakers highlights she has seen on ESPN.

“They just kept feeding the big guy (George Mikan),” she said. “He got the ball every time, and played with great determination. It must have been that way with Duncan.”

It took 54 years for a player to challenge Duncan’s record.

On Feb. 7, 1964, Monroe’s Hank Riehm scored 51 points when the Green Wave beat Humboldt 67-63. He made 12 field goals and a conference-record 27 of 29 free throws. No boys player has come closer than 42 points. Washington’s Pete Monson scored 42 in 1976, and Como Park’s Demeris Allen matched that in 1997.

Loeblein came closest on the girls side with 44 points in a victory over Johnson on Feb. 6, 1990.

“I’m not much of a numbers person,” Loeblein said. “I had no clue I was that close to anything.”

Said Taylor, who was a Harding assistant coach at the time, “If I would have known at the time, I might have persuaded Tom Gunderson (Harding’s head coach) to get her back in there. But I didn’t know anything about that record.”

ADVANCES, BUT NO RECORD

Duncan’s record stood has stood for 100 years despite a modern era in which players are bigger, stronger, faster and they play year round. Factor in games that are longer, that there are more than 20 games in a regular season, and that a three-point line is used, and his accomplishment is compounded.

Keenan said equipment and philosophies differ dramatically from his playing days.

“For kids playing today, the equipment is so much better,” he said. “In the 1940s, the Converse canvas hightops were the only way to go. But those things had a quarter-inch of rubber on them. You didn’t get any help with your spring or jumping.

“In the 1940s, basketball coaches wouldn’t permit you to lift weights because there was a belief that you would lose your scoring touch. Today, everyone is so much physically stronger. They are going to many more things to develop. It is a much more physical game.”

Despite the advances, the record has remained intact.

“I just don’t see anyone touching that record, not anytime soon or a long way down the road,” Simmons said.

Taylor, who led St. Paul Central to Class AAAA state championships in 2007 and ’08, disagrees.

“That 53 points can be broken,” he said. “If you go into a game and a kid is hot, and the score is close, it could be scary watching them go for a record. It could be done.”

Perhaps the best window of opportunity for the record to be broken is already gone.

Taylor’s 2007 team was a cast of St. Paul all-stars who plowed through opponents with power and finesse. The Minutemen finished 32-0, had an average margin victory of almost 40 points and have been tabbed the best Minnesota girls basketball team of all time.

“It still surprises me that someone could score 53 points in the dead-ball era,” said Kevin Anderson, a Midwest Region girls basketball expert who runs a scouting Web site for college coaches. “That 2007 Central team was told basically not to do certain things, like run up the score or show anything that was unsportsmanlike. We never saw that Central team at full bore. If Willie’s objective was to score points and get records, they could have easily done so.”

Said Keenan: “In Willie’s case, he had some dynamic players that could have scored 100 points. OK, that might be a little bit of a stretch, but not much. That sportsmanship element was there, and that was good.”

WNBA pioneer Lisa Leslie, who played for Morningside High School in California, scored 101 points in the first half of a game on Feb. 7, 1990. Both Taylor and Loeblein cited that as an example of one person dominating against a poor team. Leslie’s team won that game 102-24 over South Torrance, Calif.

“To keep the troops happy these days, you have to spread the ball around,” Keenan said. “You can’t keep feeding just one person.”

Said Loeblein: “With the balance on teams and on the bench, the chance of someone getting that many shots is, I think, slim.”

DREAMING, WONDERING

Still, Winters and fellow Humboldt basketball player Annessa Hicks can imagine what it would take to score 53 points.

“It would take a lot of hard work, determination and the support of your team to score that many points,” said Hicks, a senior guard who leads the conference in scoring at 21 points per game. “The most I’ve scored is 33, and that was tough work. To score more, I think you would have to let the game flow, especially if you are winning and it is close.”

Winters marvels at Duncan’s 25 made field goals in his record game.

“I made 15 field goals once against Arlington, and I thought that was a lot,” he said. “To get that record, it takes a lot of consistency. You just can’t miss. If you were thinking about the record, you’d have to let the game come to you.”

ST. PAUL CITY CONFERENCE SINGLE-GAME SCORING LEADERS

BOYS

53 — George Duncan, Humboldt, vs. Cleveland, Jan. 28, 1910

51 — Hank Riehm, Monroe, vs. Humboldt, Feb. 4, 1964

42 — Pete Monson, Washington, vs. Humboldt, Jan. 20, 1976

42 — Demeris Allen, Como Park, vs. Highland Park, Feb. 7, 1997

41 — Manuel Mitchell, Harding, vs. Humboldt, Feb. 8, 2000

41 — Steve Sir, Cretin-Derham Hall, vs. Como Park, Feb. 27, 2001

41 — Mike Keating, Cretin-Derham Hall, vs. Humboldt, Jan. 15, 2002

40 — Reid Mahon, Como Park, vs. Harding, Feb. 2, 1999

39 — Mike Heller, St. Thomas Academy, vs. Johnson, Feb. 15, 1979

39 — Chuck Shelton, Mechanic Arts, vs. Johnson, Feb. 12, 1974

39 — Dylan Hale, Central, vs. Arlington, Feb. 26, 2008

GIRLS

44 — Shannon Loeblein, Harding, vs. Johnson, Feb. 6, 1990

41 — Dorie Adamez, Humboldt, vs. Johnson, Jan. 20, 1984

41 — Shannon Loeblein, Harding, vs. Como Park, Feb. 15, 1991

38 — Tracy Buckman, Highland Park, vs. Harding, Feb. 13, 1987

38 — Shannon Loeblein, Harding, vs. Central, Jan. 19, 1990

37 — Emmy Treacy, Hill-Murray, vs. Derham Hall, Jan. 17, 1978

36 — Shannon Loeblein, Harding, vs. Humboldt, Feb. 9, 1990

36 — Lisa Harfield, Johnson, vs. Arlington, Jan. 23, 1998

36 — Kelly Scheunemann, Harding, vs. Como Park, Feb. 10, 1998

35 — Patty Lake, Johnson, vs. Humboldt, Jan. 20, 1984

35 — Shannon Loeblein, Harding, vs. Como Park, Jan. 20, 1989

35 — Kiara Buford, Central, vs. Como Park, Feb. 14, 2006

MINNESOTA BOYS BASKETBALL SINGLE-GAME SCORING RECORDS

90 — Cash Eggleston, Minnesota Transitions, Feb. 2, 2005

70 — Norm Grow, Foley, Jan. 28, 1958

69 — Ron Johnson, Starbuck, Feb. 17, 1953

58 — Jonas Holte, Starbuck, Dec. 19, 1919

56 — George Borgerding, Belgrade, Dec. 18, 1945

53 — George Duncan, St. Paul Humboldt, Jan. 28, 1910

Source: Matt Pederson, Minnesota high school basketball historian

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